Night School, a comedy starring Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish, delivers exactly you would expect from a comedy starring Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish. It peppers in plenty of jokes, some hit while others miss so badly that they can hardly be recognized as attempts at humor. There's such an eclectic mix of silly, sweet and ridiculous that's the result of six writer patching together the script. It easily could have been a disaster if not for the talented ensemble of on-screen talent.

Girls Trip director Malcolm D. Lee once again displays his aptitude for letting Haddish showcase her personality. She is equally a force when imposing her gruff edge and when showing her softer side as a no-nonsense teacher who leads the night school class for those prepping for the GED. That's where she meets Hart's character, Teddy, a serial hustler in life who lost his sales job and now must pass the GED to begin a new job in finance and impress his successful fiancé. Everyone in the night school class has their own reason for being there, but I question the logic of it all in 2018 because their desired career opportunities would be more likely to require a college education than only high school.

Nevertheless, Hart's classmates include a mom who got pregnant in high school (Mary Lynn Rajskub),a oddball conspiracy theorist (Romany Malco, who is hilarious in his limited role),and large man who is an even larger doofus (Rob Riggle),to name a few. Give Riggle credit for his commitment. He consistently pours his heart into every line with the sincerest of effort, even the ones he must have known had no chance at eliciting even a chuckle. Some of the other performers have more to work with but each achieves maximum laughs from the mediocre material.

The jokes mostly come from the most obvious places, which comes across as lazy writing. There's about three too many sight gags, one of which is admittedly hilarious despite being disgusting to point that it's impossible not to look away. The other physical humor ploys, including over-the-top comic violence, grow tired quickly.

The script hits the pause button on jokes, it unveils a heart beneath it all. These tender moments aren't exactly masterful, more like gooey to the point just shy of eye-roll worthy. But them credit for trying. All considered, this movie earns a passing score that could have been better if the filmmakers had just put in a little more work.

'Night School' was seen mainly for two reasons. One was that it was part of my "to see as many 2018 films as possible" quest, which has been an interesting one on the whole, very hit and miss somewhat like most previous years but often rewarding. The other being that it was the film choice of one of the family/friend film night gatherings had on a regular basis.

Just wanted to clear that up for anybody wondering or about to say "why did you watch it in the first place?", really hate it when people say that and it is thrown around too much around here by people who cannot stand it when people have an opinion different to theirs. Almost as bad as the constant over the top critic bashing and the immature conspiracy theories thrown around. Was not completely sold on the concept, very high school sit-com-ish, and Kevin Hart has varied with me, sometimes he's funny and at other times he is annoying.

While it was not a complete shambles, none of us found ourselves caring all that much for 'Night School'. Not the worst film of 2018 but it is towards the lower end.

Are there good points? Yes, but the flaws overshadow them. The main thing why 'Night School' hasn't been rated lower by me is Tiffany Haddish. She has comic punch and also makes a real effort, the one person who does, to make her character genuine. The film was a failure when it came to the characterisation but Haddish did succeed in making Carrie likeable.

Production values were also decent and there are a few mildly amusing moments.

However, Kevin Hart tries too hard and this is an instance of him coming over as annoying. The other actors give performances that aren't incompetent but are easy to forget as soon as the film is over. The characters are generally sketchy clichés that fail to be interesting or endearing other than Carrie. The direction also felt too safe and the film is too long and with too little story this affects the momentum quite badly, parts do drag and are disadvantaged further by there being no sparks let alone chemistry between Hart and Haddish.

As said above, the story is too thin, is very predictable from the very first second up to the very last and is very episodic. Cannot make up my mind as to whether it was like watching a far too over-extended episode of a high-school sitcom or whether it was highlight sketches of a few episodes stitched together, which never allows the film to build. The writing is what lets 'Night School' down the most, it is very laboured and forced, the mildly amusing funny moments are too few and the unnaturalness and straining are constant. The dialogue is childish and makes one cringe, very little wit here and the well-intended messaging came over heavy-handedly and with no real heart or passion.

Concluding, have seen far worse films but rather weak. 3/10 Bethany Cox

In 2001, Teddy Walker (Kevin Hart) with his learning issues fails to finish his SAT and drops out of school. He becomes a successful BBQ salesman but it all blows up. He gets a finance job offer from his friend but he needs to complete his GED. He finds Stewart (Taran Killam) who he bullied at school as the new principal and Carrie (Tiffany Haddish) as his new teacher. He and an oddball group of adult students try to pass their tests.

I really don't like these characters. I usually like Kevin Hart but I really don't like his character here. It's a version of his usual role but he gains favor from the audience by getting pounded on. We love him because little kids beat him up or The Rock punches him out. He's just a jerk in this. I don't even like Lisa. I don't like any of the students. I love Tiffany Haddish but she's simply bland in this. Essentially, she occupies the same space as Hart but she is overshadowed. The role is really calling for a straight man. Overall, I hate everybody and it's hard for a comedy to be good when I don't care about the characters.